Considering Trying Rift

Hello, I've played wow since Vanilla and I think I am just getting burned out of wow. I have been looking for a new mmo to play now.
I have tried Swtor when it first came out, although while interesting, i don't find it worth it.
Have tried gw2 and it just was not my cup of tea.
So I come here to ask you how Rift is. Is the PvP more balanced and fun than WoWs? And how is leveling on a pvp server?
Is it like how ganking on wow is or more far?
And how is the raiding? Im not to hard core of a raider but i like to do it for fun.
Lastly, would it be hard for a new player to catch up? I know in wow its horrible to be new to pvp, how is it in rift?
Thanks in advance for your feedback!

The PVP in rift is... Fun. I would not call it balanced. That said, with the number of soul combinations you can make per class, you will find a spec that will work for you.
I don't usually encounter much ganking. The community seems a little more focused on the 200v200v200 pvp maps. Granted, I transferred off my old PVP server because the PVE server had better pvp.
The raiding is amazing. Best I've done since Uldaur. I can't wait to hit 60 so I can do more.
As a new player you can definitely catch up since they just had a gear reboot and even before the expansion it was pretty easy to gear up a bit.

Thanks! That sounds great. So is their a lot of customization when it comes to making a class?
How is the community? I've missed that the most of all the things wow has lost. Been a long time since actions had consequences.
Anyway that all sounds great! Sounds worth giving a good shot.

* i only speak from a 1-40 perspective as i've never reached max level *

i think the game feels really empty, during leveling there are just very few people you encounter and low level pvp just depends wether there are enough people online to even start a single war zone.
if you like flashy games with big skills rift isn't your game, the game itself looks fantastic and as realistic as a fantasy game can become, but skills don't look really flashy and you don't really get the feeling if they cary any weight.

Thanks! That sounds great. So is their a lot of customization when it comes to making a class?
How is the community? I've missed that the most of all the things wow has lost. Been a long time since actions had consequences.
Anyway that all sounds great! Sounds worth giving a good shot.

The customization? Okay. Make sure you sit down for this.
Imagine if you took like 7 talent trees from random classes in WoW (before they destroyed their game).
Now, imagine if you could take any 3 of those talent trees... And merged them into a class.
You can have up to six specs stored... like duel spec but hexaspec.
Now, there are 4 callings. And each one has a like 6 or 7 talent trees to choose from. So you tell me.
Is that enough customization for you?

The customization? Okay. Make sure you sit down for this.
Imagine if you took like 7 talent trees from random classes in WoW (before they destroyed their game).
Now, imagine if you could take any 3 of those talent trees... And merged them into a class.
You can have up to six specs stored... like duel spec but hexaspec.
Now, there are 4 callings. And each one has a like 6 or 7 talent trees to choose from. So you tell me.
Is that enough customization for you?

That sounds insane! And Yay Have missed community. Thanks for your posts! I'm going to have to try it, and even talk to a few friends of mine
about trying it with me. Thank you so much for your input.

The customization? Okay. Make sure you sit down for this.
Imagine if you took like 7 talent trees from random classes in WoW (before they destroyed their game).
Now, imagine if you could take any 3 of those talent trees... And merged them into a class.
You can have up to six specs stored... like duel spec but hexaspec.
Now, there are 4 callings. And each one has a like 6 or 7 talent trees to choose from. So you tell me.
Is that enough customization for you?

edit: Also the community is the best I've encountered.

for clarity of information, there are 4 callings, which are general archetypes. Your calling determines what kind of armor you wear, what specs (or souls, are they are called) you have access to, and what class mechanic you have. for a quick breakdown:

Mages: Cloth, uses mana and has a charge bar for certain spells (most spells give you charge which you then consume with certain others).
Role Availability: The mage is able to (with various soul combinations): Heal, Ranged Dps, Melee Dps, Support.

Rogues: Wears leather, uses energy and combo points akin to WoW. combo points are stored on the rogue rather than the target, making switches easier. As a WoW player you will also find that they have inherited the 'hunter' specs.
Role Availability: The Rogue is able to Ranged Dps, Melee Dps, tank, or support.

Clerics wear chainmail and use a mana bar. Clerics have the most healing options, but less dps options as a result.
Role availability: All: Tank, healer, ranged dps, melee dps, support

Warriors have plate armor and the most tanking soul options of any class. they can dual wield or 2h with generally equal effectiveness in dps specs.
Role Availability: Tank, melee dps, ranged dps, support.

Each "calling" or archetype has 9 available souls, which are essentially talent trees. You can slot any 3 souls of your calling at one time and distribute your talent points (1 per level plus 1 additional point every third level until 48, after which it's simply 1 point per level resulting in a total of 76) within those 3 souls however you like (maximum of 61 points in any one soul - which fills it up and is generally considered a "pure" build). Your points in any given soul cannot exceed your level, so you will gain points while leveling that you "have" to spend in secondary souls even in a pure build. At level 50 and onwards, you will be allowed to place 1 more point than your current level in any one soul (thus allowing you to have a 51 pt whatever build at 50, or a 61 pt whatever build at 60). Your allocation of points in 3 slotted souls constitutes one "spec". Eventually, you'll be able to have up to six specs saved at any given time (functionally similar to wow's dual spec setup). so yeah, is monstrously customizable. You may find it overwhelming at the start - for this reason they ask you to select a purpose on character creation, which is basically a preset talent build for you to work in while you learn the game. purposes can be ignored once you get into the game itself if you want, or dropped at any time and picked up again later. New purposes will appear in the list as you level and have more points available if you just want to play something that you know should work while you learn the game and mess about with soul builds later

TLR - if you want to tank, dont be a mage. if you want to be a true healer, dont be a rogue or warrior (rogues have some aoe healing-support options, but cannot actually heal a dungeon, per se, like a healer would be able to). other than that, anybody can fill pretty much any spot.

also, a note on gearing. There are only two kinds of gear in general- tank gear, and not tank gear. if you are a mage, there is no tank gear, obviously. Only tanks require a new set of gear. If you are a cleric, for example, you could have a tank set, but after that it doesnt matter if you are healer, caster, or melee - you'll use the same stats for each of those and will not require other gear (as opposed to say a druid from wow needing several sets between cat/boom/bear etc, or an enh shaman needing new gear compared to ele/resto)

---------- Post added 2012-12-15 at 11:26 PM ----------

also, i can be found on Deepwood-NA under the names Kalysin or Lavalle

Hello, I've played wow since Vanilla and I think I am just getting burned out of wow. I have been looking for a new mmo to play now.
I have tried Swtor when it first came out, although while interesting, i don't find it worth it.
Have tried gw2 and it just was not my cup of tea.
So I come here to ask you how Rift is. Is the PvP more balanced and fun than WoWs? And how is leveling on a pvp server?
Is it like how ganking on wow is or more far?
And how is the raiding? Im not to hard core of a raider but i like to do it for fun.
Lastly, would it be hard for a new player to catch up? I know in wow its horrible to be new to pvp, how is it in rift?
Thanks in advance for your feedback!

I don't PvP except as light-hearted fun, but there is no "real" attempt at PvP class balance. Trion believes in PvP with a certain number of represented classes needed to win the battleground. ie Enough healers, tanks (flag carriers for example), DPS, Support

SWTOR was never available in South Africa. I'm a great Star Wars fan, but just prefer a fantasy mmo to a sci-fi mmo, so no loss there as I would never have played.

You can level on a PvP server if you wish, but why would you? Level on a PvE server to max level and then FREE transfer to a PvP server.

As a semi-hardcore (2 times per week) raid leader in TBC / WotLK for about 3~4 years, I can honestly say that raiding is reminiscent of these era's and is... in my opinion, much better executed.

If you're like me and are interested in raiding, get in a biggish guild and then just get in the "gearing up" slots after they have the content on farm. With my limited schedule, I have already accepted I will probably only really get into raiding in about the end of this month - so, the third raid will probably be on the test shard as I enter the first bunch. Yes, if you're a social player, there will always be content ahead of you. There was an ungodly amount of raids in Rift v1.0 - now that most of the bugs and quality of life issues were resolved in Rift v1, I expect we are going to see an incredible amount of new dungeons, warfronts, raids added.

It's easy for new players to "catch up". Farm some gold, buy some crafted gear and you can be ready for the first raid tier in an afternoon. I would, however, recommend grinding dungeons for a week to get better than merely being "hit capped".

PvP is not the main focus in PvE. Think "warfronts" rather than "arena".

I suspect, however, that Trion have something up their sleeve regarding PvP - something which will not affect PvE at all.